The Album
by Cats070911
Summary: This series comes from a mutual challenge three or four of the author's here accepted where we send photos from ILM or of the actors to each other and then the recipient has to write a short story that explains the shot. This is for our amusement but hopefully also yours.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note:** all usual disclaimers apply.

This series comes from a mutual challenge three or four of the author's here accepted where we send photos from ILM or of the actors to each other and then the recipient has to write a short story that explains the shot. This is for our amusement but hopefully also yours.

* * *

Tommy Lynley pulled the leather album down from the shelf in his library while his wife poured drinks for him and their guest. Their sons Matthew and James were sitting on the floor near the window trying to teach their baby sister Catherine how to build a Lego car.

He flung the album carelessly on the couch and rushed to his wife. "Barbara, don't lift all those glasses at once. They're too heavy."

"Stop fussing Tommy." She turned to Aunt Edwina who was smirking slightly at her nephew. "It is my fourth child, you'd think he'd be used to it by now Ed."

"The twins only count as one pregnancy," he shot back with a smile.

It had become a ritual every year showing Aunt Edwina their wedding photos when she came down from Bath to spend her birthday week in London. She picked up the discarded album and opened it. "Oh my!"

Barbara looked over and laughed. "Er, that's our private album Ed. Sorry about that." She glanced at the photo and roared laughing. "Tommy, it's the one with you standing looking mortified holding nothing but a pillow in front of you."

Ed looked at her horrified nephew and started laughing much louder than she intended. James and Matthew came rushing over to see what the grown-ups were enjoying so much. Their sister started to cry. Tommy went over and picked her up and sat on the sofa. The boys leapt up onto their father and started vying for his attention. Somehow he managed to scoop them all into his arms and cuddle them amidst growls and laughter.

"Me first, I'm the heir," James bossed his brother, "you're just the spare!"

"James Lynley!," his mother chastised him, "where did you learn that?"

"School," he seven year old son replied sheepishly, "from Peter Heartsmith, he's the son of the Duke of York."

"The Duke of York doesn't have a son," Tommy said sternly, "now what have I told you about being Earl?"

"That you'll decide when we're twenty-one who becomes Earl number nine"

"Correct, so?"

"We're both spares," Matthew chimed in. Tommy smiled at Barbara. Matthew had her intelligence and directness. Although he did not have a favourite child, he knew in his heart Matt would be his heir, despite James having been born by Caesarian three minutes earlier.

James grabbed his brother and hugged him. "Sorry." They happily skidded off their father dragging their sister with them. She was abandoned half way back to their Lego and sat with a perplexed pre-cry face in the middle of the room; a cry that was averted by her mother picking her up and depositing her with her brothers.

Barbara waddled to the sofa. "He told me once, a few hours after that photo was taken actually, that he wanted 'armfuls of children'. Well he's got big arms but after Master Paul here comes, that's it." Tommy lovingly put his arm around her after Barbara managed to lower herself into position.

"Why the shock, in the photo?" Ed asked.

Tommy looked sheepish. "She...thought I was a rapist and grabbed her phone to get evidence."

"Hmm, and why did she think that?"

Barbara looked up lovingly at Tommy. "We had a case in Canterbury. I had gone down with Winston, another policeman, because Tommy was in court. He came down that night. He told reception he was my partner so they gave him the key to my room thinking we were...well lovers. He only turned the lamp on and didn't see me in bed until he hopped in. You can imagine waking to find a naked man climbing into your bed."

Edwina started laughing hysterically. "So what did you do?"

"I punched him and grabbed my phone. It was only after I took that photo that I realised who it was."

"Oh no! What did you say?"

"We laughed about it, then I noticed he had dropped the pillow when he sat on my bed." Tommy squeezed Barbara's knee and grinned at her.

"Something else happened didn't it?" Ed demanded.

"She lifted the covers and suggested I cover myself," he said with a wicked grin. "So I got in and the bed was so small we had to snuggle close. The twins were the result of the evening."

"You weren't...sleeping together...before?"

"No!" Barbara said, "but he had nowhere to go and he was rather cute in those days."

"We'd been sort of flirting for a while and when I first hopped into bed she said 'Tommy? I've missed you today. Cuddle me.' I suppose I should have been shocked but I even wondered if she'd set it up with reception. I had her in my arms and she wriggled closer. I wasn't going to miss the chance to kiss her but when I did that's when she punched me."

Edwina started to giggle infectiously and looked over her glasses at Barbara. "Cuddle me?"

"I thought I was dreaming. I used to do that...about him, and us being together...but when he kissed me I woke up and thought I was being attacked. When I saw it was him and he was sitting naked on my bed confused and contrite he looked adorable...and other things...I took advantage I suppose." His aunt raised an intrigued eyebrow. "I suggested we start at the beginning...

"And then said 'Tommy, cuddle me. So I did then I kissed her again, without the punch and we discovered we rather liked it" The couple exchanged a knowing look. 'Cuddle' had become a euphemism for all intimate moments between them.

"I never knew you had to get married," Edwina said with genuine surprise.

"We didn't," Tommy answered indignantly, "we had already decided that before we even suspected the boys were on their way. I am definitely not telling you the details but we were very 'compatible'. We were lying there in that bed joking about what if something had happened and I said I hoped it had because I wanted an armful of red-haired children."

"And I said I wouldn't wish mini-Barbaras on anyone. But look we have two boys who look exactly like Tommy, a girl like me and a little boy on the way who will grow up to captain England in some sort of kicking sport!"

Tommy called the boys over. They held their sister's hands and like little gentlemen helped her across to the couch. They climbed up and nestled around their parents. Edwina smiled at the happiness on everyone's faces. "So what other photos are in this book?"


	2. Chapter 2

"Oh, I like this one!" Edwina exclaimed, "Tommy looks so casual and happy and you look simply stunning! Baby bump and all. But what was so funny?"

Barbara looked at the photo. "Oh that. It was my only night on the red carpet. It was a lot of fun. Tommy decided to make me feel more comfortable by abandoning his suit and tie while I had decided I had better make more effort as Lady A, so I frocked up. I thought all black was slimming with those two growing so fast in me but Tommy was in all black too. I thought we looked a little Addams Family but the photographer told me I was the sexiest woman he had see all night. I thought Tommy would say something cutting or unpleasant because he can get a little possessive at times but he told him 'I know, and I'm the one who gets to take her home. Then he paused deliberately. The implication was clear."

Edwina roared laughing. "And the evidence was right there that he does!"

"Ed! You're as bad as him. I was shocked at my husband saying such a thing and that's the exact moment the photographer snapped us - Tommy looking pleased with himself and me looking shocked, in an amused way."

Both women turned to look at Tommy who tried to look indignant. "I like people thinking I have a sexy wife. Just as long as thinking is all they do. Remember what Grandma Alice used to say..."

"You can get your appetite anywhere, so long as you eat at home," the three of them said in unison then laughed. The two sleepy boys in Tommy's arms looked up at him. Barbra smiled at her men, all with identical locks of hair hanging over their left eyes.

"Well it was the ITV British Soap Awards and there were all sorts of dishy stars around. A woman has to look her best...just in case you find a better restaurant," Barbara joked and smiled at her husband's raised eyebrow.

"Soap awards?"

"It was Winston's fault. He works with us and he was dating a screenwriter. She was up for an award for a sequence of episodes in Long Lusty Nights that she based on our relationship; you know handsome lord of the manor falls hopelessly in love with his employee who wants nothing to do with him until he slowly wins her over. It's the stuff cheap romance novels and soaps lap up."

Edwina laughed. "Was it accurate?"

"Not really, their female lead was far too compliant to ever be Mummy," Tommy said as he playfully ruffled his yawning sons' hair.

"And the lord was far too up himself...well actually they got him pretty right," Barbara joked.

"I must look for it on re-runs. I'd be interested to see your unconventional relationship portrayed."

"We're quite conventional, aren't we my love?" Tommy said with an undertone that amused his aunt.

"Did she win?"

Barbara smiled sadly. "Yes actually but then she dumped Winston for a fellow she met that night. He was devastated. We felt bad for him."

Tommy looked over at Barbara and winked. "Good job too or goodness knows what intimate secrets of our lives would have ended up on TV!"

"Well Winston has a good eye for detail, even details you don't think he sees. Lord Timmy Asherby kissed Beryl Hanson just like you kiss me."

Tommy blushed slightly. "And how is that?" he asked in a low voice.

"The way you run your hand over my neck and...yes, well Ed you get the picture. Come on you three. Say good night to Aunt Ed and Daddy."

"I can take them," Tommy said glad Barbara had changed the subject, "stay there while you're comfortable. Come on boys, clean your teeth and into bed."

"Will you read to us Daddy?"

"Yes, a quick story." He scooped his daughter up and quickly kissed Barbara with the kiss he used to promise something more intimate later. "Back before you know it."

Barbara watched her husband leave the room. "He's excellent with them. I don't think I could cope with four if he wasn't prepared to help."

"So are you sending him for the snip after this one?"

"No, I don't like that idea! Best not tamper with the plumbing, at least not peer of the realm plumbing. Look here's one you'll like."

"Oh, how adorable. Tommy was always more of a dog man!"

They looked at the picture of him lying on the floor photobombing Marmalade, their ginger tabby. Barbara thought he looked young and carefree with his arms folded casually as he lay on his stomach behind the dresser, peeking around over the head of a sombre looking Marmalade He had lost some weight for their wedding and it made him look much younger. The tight black tee shirt showed off the definition in his arms and with the big watch she had given him as a wedding present he looked trendy, not a word she would normally have used about Tommy.

She smiled wickedly at the memory. "I had simply been trying to get a decent photo of Marmalade, the cat he bought me for company after I had given up work waiting for the boys to arrive. I was about six months gone. I was prostrate on the tiled floor of the London townhouse where the cat was sleeping under a set of drawers. It had taken me ages to lie down comfortably and was I making meowing sounds so the uncooperative cat would look at my phone when Tommy had crawled around the corner meowing in response. I managed one decent shot before we dissolved into laughter and the cat stalked off haughtily. I don't think it liked being upstaged. Tommy had kept meowing as he crawled across the kitchen to me and well...let's just say that he can be a very passionate man."

Ed raised her hand. "Okay! There are some things I don't need to know about my nephew," she said in faux horror.

"And I'm supposed to be a lady now, so I would never tell. If you flick a few pages on there is another one that will amuse you."


End file.
